DOE Secretary Chu Heralds $32 Million to Modernize Hydropower

MendoCoastCurrent, June 30, 2009

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu is making available over $32 million in Recovery Act funding to modernize the existing hydropower infrastructure in the U.S., increase efficiency and reduce environmental impact.

His  announcement supports the deployment of turbines and control technologies to increase power generation and environmental stewardship at existing non-federal hydroelectric facilities.

“There’s no one solution to the energy crisis, but hydropower is clearly part of the solution and represents a major opportunity to create more clean energy jobs,” said Secretary Chu. “Investing in our existing hydropower infrastructure will strengthen our economy, reduce pollution and help us toward energy independence.”

Secretary Chu notes a key benefit of hydropower: potential hydro energy can be stored behind dams and released when it is most needed. Therefore, improving our hydro infrastructure can help to increase the utilization and economic viability of intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.

Secretary Chu has committed to developing pumped storage technology to harness these advantages. Today’s funding opportunity announcement under the Recovery Act will be competitively awarded to a variety of non-federal hydropower projects that can be developed without significant modifications to dams and with a minimum of regulatory delay.

Projects will be selected in two areas:

• Deployment of Hydropower Upgrades at Projects >50 MW: These include projects at large, non-federal facilities (greater than 50 MW capacity) with existing or advanced technologies that will enable improved environmental performance and significant new generation.
• Deployment of Hydropower Upgrades at Projects < 50 MW: These include projects at small-scale non-federal facilities (less than 50 MWs) with existing or advanced technologies that will enable improved environmental performance and significant new generation.

Letters of intent are due July 22, 2009, and completed applications are due August 20, 2009.

The complete Funding Opportunity Announcement, number DE-FOA-0000120, can be viewed on the Grants.gov Web site. Projects are expected to begin in fiscal year 2010.

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LPPC Stresses Regional, Economic Choices for Grid

Electric Light & Power, June 11, 2009

As the Obama administration shapes its policy on transmission planning, siting and cost allocation, the Large Public Power Council (LPPC) has sent a joint letter voicing its transmission policy views and concerns to Energy Secretary Chu, Interior Secretary Salazar, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, FERC Chairman Wellinghoff, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Sutley and Presidential Energy Advisor Carol Browner.

The letter was sent to the Obama policy makers by Bob Johnston, Chair of the 23 member not-for-profit utility organization. Members of the LPPC own and operate nearly 90% of the transmission investment owned by non-federal public power entities in the United States.

The LPPC told the Obama Administration that it is “most supportive of a framework for interconnection-wide planning that addresses the growing need to interconnect renewable resources to the grid.”

“Many of our members are leaders in renewable deployment and energy efficiency. We are committed to these policy goals and closely tied to the values of our local communities,” the LPPC emphasized. “But we also believe that creating a new planning bureaucracy could be costly and counterproductive in achieving needed infrastructure development.”

The LPPC voiced strong support for the region-wide planning process recently mandated by FERC Order 890 that directed implementation of new region-wide planning processes that the LPPC claims “require an unprecedented level of regional coordination, transparency and federal oversight.”

“It seems quite clear that federal climate legislation and a national renewable portfolio standard will further focus these planning processes, the LPPC asserted. “LPPC fully expects that the regional processes to which parties have recently committed will take on new urgency and purpose. Adding a planning bureaucracy to that mix will be time consuming and will likely delay rather than expedite transmission development.”

The LPPC also told the Obama policy makers that, “it would be unnecessary, inequitable and counterproductive to allocate the cost of a new transmission superhighway to all load serving entities without regard to their ability to use the facilities or their ability to rely on more economical alternatives to meet environmental goals.”

The LPPC contended, “that certain proposals it has reviewed to allocate the cost of new transmission on an interconnection-wide basis would provide an enormous and unnecessary subsidy to large scale renewable generation located far from load centers, at the expense of other, potentially more economical alternatives. Utilities, state regulators, and regional transmission organizations should determine how to meet the environmental goals established by Congress most effectively by making economic choices among the array of available options, without subsidy of one technology or market segment over others.”

The LPPC letter further claimed that the cost of a massive transmission build-out will be substantial and that cost estimates they had reviewed “appear to be meaningfully understated.” The LPPC estimates that nationwide costs for such a build-out “may range between $135 billion and $325 billion, equating to a monthly per customer cost between $14 and $35.  This is a critical matter for LPPC members, as advocates for the consumers we serve.”

The Large Public Power Council letter concluded by offering its support for additional federal siting authority for multi-state transmission facilities “in order to overcome the limited ability of individual states to address multi-state transmission projects to meet regional needs. LPPC is confident that such new authority can be undertaken in consultation with existing state siting authorities in a manner that capitalizes on existing expertise and ensures that state and local concerns are addressed in the siting process.”

The LPPC’s membership includes 23 of the nation’s largest publicly owned, not-for-profit energy systems. Members are located in 10 states and provide reliable, electricity to some of the largest cities in the U.S. including Los Angeles, Seattle, Omaha, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, Jacksonville, Orlando and Austin.

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Wellinghoff on Energy Stimulus Funds, Removing Renewable Energy Obstacles and FERC

MendoCoastCurrent from Platts Energy Podium, February 12, 2009

The recently approved Economic Stimulus Plan includes expanding the US electric transmission grid and this may be the just the start of what will be a costly effort to improve reliability and deliver renewable energy to consumers from remote locations, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Chairman Jon Wellinghoff told the Platts Energy Podium on February 12, 2009.

Wellinghoff defines the Stimulus energy funds as “seed money. But it really isn’t [enough] money to make huge advances in the overall backbone grid that we’re talking about to integrate substantial amounts of wind.”

While details of the plan compromises are unclear, the measure could provide $10 billion or more to transmission upgrades. Wellinghoff said backbone transmission projects could cost more than $200 billion. “And I think we’ll see that money coming from the private sector,” based on proposals already submitted to FERC.

Wellinghoff’s focused on Congress strengthening federal authority to site interstate high-voltage electric transmission lines to carry wind power to metropolitan areas and expects FERC to be heavily involved in formulation of either a comprehensive energy bill or a series of bills meant to address obstacles to increasing renewable wind, solar and geothermal energy, and other matters that fall within FERC’s purview. 

FERC plays a critical role “given the authorities we’ve been given in the 2005 and 2007 acts and our capabilities with respect to policy and implementation of energy infrastructure.”

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